jacinta atieno, 14 May 2012
african food security
the governments should put smallholder farmers and agriculture productivity at the center of national food security and nutrition strategies, with a focus on women farmers. encourage youth engagement in agriculture throughout the value chain and work closely with the private sector.
Steve Miller (Moderator) from France, 15 May 2012Thanks for raising the interesting topic on (African) food security. Please join in the ongoing discussions on urban agriculture and on employment and community development which may provide some answers to the issues you are raising. How can food security and job creation be taken on together?
Rachael M'Rabu, 15 May 2012Jacinta, this brings to my mind what recently happened at the Ruai Sewage Treatment Plant in Nairobi, when it was discovered that most green vegetables sold in the city of Nairobi were coming from there (especially in the dry spell that we had before the rains came). I remember the shock the city was in on realizing that we had been feeding on very healthy looking vegetable, but which had been grown using sewer water. Inevitably, all such activities at the sewage plant were stop. But what if the city were to provide incentives and encourage this urban agriculture by providing safe and hygenic conditions still at the same place, would that create employment? Would it feed the city? Would the urban farmers, majority of whom l noticed from the television coverage were women, be partners in the African food security equation?
Steve Miller (Moderator) from France, 15 May 2012Thanks Jacinta for this interesting example from Nairobi. I have always suspected that much urban agriculture, particularly green vegetable production, is done with unsanitary water. I have also wondered if insecticides are being used in unsafe conditions, and if children are involved and exposed to risks.
One question which I have had in mind throughout this eDebate is: What can city governments do to create new jobs? Urban agriculture is certainly one area, as you and the parallel discussions on food security and urban agriculture have shown. Also, municipal governments it would seem could step in to improve the working conditions, ensure that the vegetables are safe to eat without at the same time throwing the baby out with the bathwater, that is , without putting a stop to these activities which have a strong job creation potential.
Adrian Atkinson, 17 May 2012There is a dawning realisation even in 'officiel development' circles that as we reach the pinacle of development and start down the other side in the coming years, there is a need for a fundamental rethink in how urban areas are going to access the resources they need. A conferebnce organised late last year by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation focused on the 'nexus' of water, energy and food security where new ways will have to be found to plan and manage these. Work is just beginning to focus on what this might mean - a new GIZ project in selected Asian Cities.
This brings together bits and pieces of groping towards solutions to an otherwise catastrophic urban future that have been gradually developing. Among these are the need for coherent local energy planning to radically reduce, ahead of necessity and related hardship, the need for energy and with it exploit more intensively energy renewable sources.
Then on the water front this mean reducing energy needs in accessing water (pumping long distances and ever-harder to access ground water). So: rainwater harvesting and total reuse of -adequately treated - wastewater for urban farming, generating biogas on the way through and, indeed, using human and source-separated organic solid waste, via composting, to substitute for ever more scarce fertilizer.
And in this context, crash programmes in developing UPA using these resources, surveying available land, vacant urban spaces, rooftops.... Researching efficient methods of intensive urban farming (as the Cub an's did in the crisis following the fall of the Soviet Union) and teach citizens how to do it.
All of this can create employment and is eventually urban activity that can generate incomes ebbing away in the vacuous sectors of banking, real estate dealing and other 'business services'. Organised by comminties, resource recovery (once deemed to be 'waste management') also provides - even necessitates - the rebuilding of local communities, working together, crossing the terrible social boundaries that have been created by modern consumerist urbanisation. And putting urban citizens in touch again with what it means to produce your own life from the substance of nature...
Steve Miller (Moderator) from France, 17 May 2012Thanks Adrian for jumping into this discussion on food security and I appreciate your comments on the nexus of water, energy and food in urban areas. I encourage everyone to join in the various discussion threads relating to urban agriculture and I’m sure you will find these relevant to your comments.
In Laura Wolf-Powers topic (Can Agriculture be an Urban Job Creator?) she argues in favour of local urban agriculture as follows: “The most important potential economic development contribution of urban farming lies with its capacity to develop the human and social capital necessary to effectuate “inside-out” revitalization in economically distressed urban neighborhoods." Edmundo Werna’s topic on urban agriculture may also be of interest.